Hotel owners have always
tried to associate their establishments with symbols of modernity. Their logic
was that potential customers would thus conclude that the hotel was also equipped
with the latest developments in modern comfort (electric lighting, lifts, room
telephones, and so on).

From
the earliest years of the XX century the antics of the first aviators were front
page material to all major newspapers in the world and it is only surprising that
so few planes found their way into hotel luggage labels.

The two fine labels at
right, top and side, are amongst the very earliest to depict airplanes. The first,
for a French hotel, is a stupendous early label and remarkable in the fact that
it is collectable on account of at least three different themes (besides the plane,
we have in it a fine representation of period sports clothing and of early tennis
playing).

The second label
is also remarkable on several counts: not only the representation of planes (and
indeed any "fancy" theme) is very unusual in the austere designs of
early American labels, but also the gothic and comic book-like quality of the
building rendition makes this label quite unique. The planes are sufficiently
detailed to be recognizable as early Wright glider-equipped biplanes and, seemingly,
the hotel sports a launching platform on the roof!

The Zeppelin dirigibles
were the first reliable means of long range air travel and were generally considered
to be the marvel of their time. Considering their short time span of only ten
years, they found their way into a comparatively larger number of labels then
the early airplanes. After their demise in 1938, following the Hindenburg destruction
in Lakehurst, the depiction of dirigibles was eradicated from labels and it would
take another two decades for them to reappear in the nostalgic labels of German
hotels named after the popular Graf (Count) Von Zeppelin.

The
label at right is one of two slightly different designs for the same hotel and
probably dates from around 1930. The somber graphics are typical of many German
labels of the time. After W.W.II the same hotel would once again use a Zeppelin
in its label.

Launched in 1928, the beautifully
proportioned Graf Zeppelin was the most successful of all airships. In 1929, the
year of the Ibero-American exhibition, the Graf Zeppelin landed in Seville- tickets
were sold at 2 pesetas, for those who wanted a closer view of the mooring of the
great ship. The sight so impressed Sevillans, that the airship was pictured in
this contemporary label for a local hotel. The label is remarkable on another
count: the horse-drawn carriage at right was the typical hotel transportation
that awaited customers at the train stations to carry them and their luggage to
the hotel. It is rarely shown on labels.

This interesting label
(one of two similar designs for the same hotel) shows the Hindenburg over Frankfurt.
Launched in 1936, the fateful airship could be distinguished from the Graf by
its bulkier shape and rounded lower tail fin. Ominously, it sported swastikas
on the tail, following the acquisition, by the German government through Luft
Hansa, of enough shares to gain control of the company. So
did the Graf Zeppelin from 1936 onwards.

At right, a circa 1953
depiction of a Super Constellation in an otherwise rather boring African label.
The most interesting airplane-related labels of the time are for hotels in distant
locations that had for clients the passengers of companies that used some local
strip and made a night stop before the next hop towards their final destination.

The
jet age is rarely represented in hotel labels. By then planes, together with cars
and many other former signs of modernity, had lost most of their appeal. By then,
labels themselves had lost most of their former appeal anyway... given time, what
does not?